You can perform a basic search of the database from the Database Search screen. To display the Database Search screen click on the Search Database button on the Main Menu screen.

All the searches are performed in conjunction with the ‘In Collection’, ‘Not in Collection’ and ‘All’ tick boxes. See the separate help topic for more information.

To display all entries in the database make sure the ‘All’ tick box has a tick in it and then click on the Display All button. All the entries in the current database will be displayed. You can find more information on a specific recording, by double clicking on the relevant line in the grid. This will display the Edit/Display screen showing the full details of the selected recording.

Note: clicking on the Display All button will also return the active option button, to Artist.

You can do a more specific search by selecting one of the option buttons located below the grid.

The information you want to search for will be entered in a box or list box which is at the bottom of the screen.

Example 1

You want to search for a specific Artist. To do this, select the Artist option button. Click on the arrow to the right of the box at the bottom. A list will be displayed. Select an artist from the list, then click on the Search button or hit enter. Any matches found will now be displayed in the grid.

Example 2

Select Artist. Enter D* in the box at the bottom. Click on the Search button or hit enter. Any artists beginning with the letter D will now be displayed in the grid.

Example 3

Select Artist. Enter *oss* in the box at the bottom. Click on the Search button or hit enter. Any artists containing ‘oss’ in their name will be displayed i.e. Diana Ross, Luther Van Dross.

The other fields can be searched in the same way. For example you may want to search for any artist that has ‘band’ anywhere in their name. You would enter *band*

Or search for any track beginning with I’ll always* or ending in *forever

Example 4

Select Tracks. Enter Love in the box at the bottom. Click on the Search button or hit enter. Any albums that have the word ‘love’ in any of their tracks will be displayed in the search grid.

To see the tracks, double click on the first row in the display grid. The Edit/Display screen will now be displayed showing all the track titles. Use the arrow keys to step to the next or previous entry in the database.

Example 5

Select Word. Enter Love in the box at the bottom. Click on the Search button or hit enter.

This is very similar to example 4 except that the database search will check not only the track titles but the artist and title as well. This would be useful for searching for a particular artist where the artist may not be one entered in the Artist field. E.g. If the artist field is entered as various(for a compilation CD for example)but the artist appears in the track description.

Example 6

Select ‘On Loan’. There will be no box at the bottom for this search because you are searching for recordings you have out on loan. Click on the Search button or hit enter.

Only those recordings marked as on loan will be displayed in the grid.

Example 7

Select Year (Before). Enter 2000 in the box at the bottom. Click on the Search button or hit enter. Only those recordings that were recorded before 2000 will be displayed in the grid.

Example 8

To search for part of a catalogue number. Select the Catalogue Number option button.

Enter *2346*. Click on the Search button. Any catalogue numbers that contain the numbers 2346 will be displayed in the grid.

NOTE: You do not always have to select an item from a list. For example, you may have two format types in the list. One defined as Double CD CD 1 and the other as Double CD CD 2. This identifies the format as a double CD. If you now search for one or the other you would only find matches for either CD 1 or CD 2. But if you typed in Double CD instead of choosing an item from the list, all entries beginning with Double CD would now be displayed in the search grid.

As with all these examples the number of matches found is displayed at the top of the screen.

Care should be taken when using the wildcard character. Putting a space after the ‘*’ will not be the same as putting it directly after the last character and will probably result in your database search returning zero matches.

The information in the grid can be changed, by using the ‘Order By’ drop-down menu. See separate help topic for more information.